'Priscilla Queen of the Desert The Musical' vamping its way to PlayhouseSquare with costumes galore

You know that friend or relative who doesn't exactly pack light? You know the one -- he or she can't go away for the weekend without three bags packed for all sorts of weather, contingency plans and what-ifs?

The energetic and colorful show -- just launched as a touring production following a stint on Broadway -- is about to roll into Cleveland's PlayhouseSquare with some serious luggage.

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"We have close to 500 costume pieces on stage every night," says Michelle Harrison, the tour's costume director, adding that there are 60 wigs and "tons of makeup" and that the show burns through about 2 pounds of glitter a week. (That's gotta be a lot of glitter, right?)

Hey, you have to look good on the road, and "Priscilla" is a road-trip story. Based on the 1994 movie "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," which put Guy Pearce, Hugo Weaving and Terrance Stamp in drag, the stage show also has a trio of friends (Wade McCollum, Scott Willis and Bryan West in this production) "who hop aboard a battered old bus searching for love and friendship in the middle of the Australian outback and end up finding more than they ever could have dreamed," according to a news release from PlayhouseSquare.

There are those shows where the costumes are understated, they're job simply being to help you buy into the make-believe world in front of you. And then there are shows like "Priscilla." The work of Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner led to the show winning the 2011 Tony Award for Best Costume Design.

"It's all part of it, and it definitely helps tell the story of the show," Harrison said of the costumes. "They're big, and they're in-your-face, and they're exciting -- and you don't know where to look next."

On the phone from Peoria, Ill., where the tour was in previews the first week of the year, Harrison is a Dallas native who earned a degree in theater and English from Stephen F. Austin University in Texas. After finishing school, she says, she took a job with Maryland-based Troika Entertainment, the company behind the "Priscilla" tour, working her way up to costume director.

Harrison and a small staff work out the logistics of sending a show's costumes out on the road. And she's typically on the road with a show early on; she said she planned to be in Minneapolis for the tour's launch this past week and on to Cleveland for at least part of the two-week run at the Palace Theatre.

"Some (shows) are smoother than others, but there's always some kind of chaos involved," she says. "We're working from 8 a.m. usually to ... midnight, so everyone's tired.

"It's an event in itself."

Asked to put into perspective just how big a show "Priscilla" is in terms of costumes, Harrison explains that costumes typically are transported form city to city in big rolling closets the theater folks refer to as "gondolas." In a typical show, she says, there are 10 to 15 gondolas.

"This show has 40 of them, and that doesn't' include any of our supply kits we carry with us," she says. "It's huge. We're right up there with the 'Wicked's and the 'Lion King's in terms of size and the actual volume of costume pieces."

All those costumes should hint at one thing: lots of costume changes.

"We have over 200 -- I think it's around 260 actual costume changes every night," Harrison says. "(They take) everywhere from 16 seconds to six minutes

"There are two people who have to put on one of the giant cupcake dresses in 45 seconds, so that all has to be choreographed and worked out."

The costumes were designed by Chappel and Gardiner to incorporate items the characters could come across on their road trip and seem as though the ensembles could be put together during the journey.

"I think they tried to keep it fun," she says. "They tried to keep it exciting."

Harrison says the show in general is a really fun spectacle, but she admits it may not be the sort of thing macho, macho men (if you will) would be very eager to see. Is there a way to sell it to them?

"That is a tough one," she says. "It would be hard to get people who aren't so familiar with this type of show to come and see it, but it is fun. It is just a fun evening."